Backgrounder on surreal HuffPo Live Interviews with @JoshZepps

Josh is one of the founding hosts of HuffPost Live. In his native Australia, he won Australia’s highest radio prize for his long-running satirical comedy sketches on Sydney radio. On TV, he was the host and co-executive producer of Australian Idol Backstage, the behind-the-scenes component of the country’s most popular show.

Posted: Print Article Stephen Colbert, host of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, has found himself under heavy criticism today because of a joke he made on his show last night that was then sent out under a Twitter handle maintained by Comedy Central.

A Stephen Colbert joke about the Redskins controversy led to a fierce Twitter backlash and #CancelColbert becoming a huge trend, and Suey Park, the activist who started the trend got in a heated debate Friday morning with HuffPost Live's Josh Zepps over satire and white privilege, with Park scolding him for "patronizing" her.

Josh Zepps is a host on HuffPost Live. He presides over many interesting and civil conversations with guests on a wide variety of topics. Generally they end in a civil manner. Not so much today, because of the issue: On the other end of the video link was Suey Park, the Korean-American Twitter hashtag activist who drew recognition from her campaign #NotYourAsianSidekick.

CancelColbert didn't actually cancel The Colbert Report, but the conversations it sparked are going strong thanks to a cringe-worthy interview with the hashtag's founder. Suey Park, the activist responsible for the #CancelColbert trending topic, appeared on Huffington Post Live Friday to discuss racism and satire with host Josh Zepps, but it didn't reach a much wider audience until the video appeared on YouTube and Reddit a couple days later.

Since Thursday evening, when 23-year-old writer and activist Suey Park sent out a tweet to her 19,000-odd followers-"The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals has decided to call for #CancelColbert. Trend it."-America's media has been in the grips of some sort of Suey Park-derangement syndrome.

One of my most trusted friends, an Asian man, told me I was flat-out wrong to support #CancelColbert. Just documenting my response here. I know that as a writer you're already aware, satire is a tool intended to enact social criticism through ridicule. It's supposed to subvert power.